


Three's a Crowd

by SegaBarrett



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 18:12:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1657772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snape, Lily, and James have come to an odd little arrangement by Fifth year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three's a Crowd

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I make no money from this.
> 
> A/N: Written for cotton_candybingo, square - "annoyed".

“Hey, Snivelus.”

Severus Snape looked up from his spot by the tree with a sigh.

“I thought you were going to stop calling me that,” he spoke up, rubbing at his nose with his finger.

“I have to keep up appearances,” James Potter replied with a small hint of sincerity, “Sorry.” He tossed the snitch that he held in one hand to the other one. “If people knew what we were up to… They might not get it.”

Lily Evans seemed to float in next to James. 

“Hi, Sevy,” she greeted happily. “Sorry I’m late. Professor Slughorn wanted to ask me about my Potions paper.”

Snape’s cheeks flushed, as they often did whenever he was in the same vicinity with Lily. He still didn’t know exactly how they had gotten into this agreement, but he was okay with it as long as he got to spend more time with her. She was beautiful in every way.

James, on the other hand – well, he was attractive, Snape couldn’t deny that – but he was also a pain in the ass. He excelled at all of those things that Snape lacked, the social side of things. It was hard enough to get the three of them away from the ever increasing crowd that surrounded the two of them. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and, most annoying of all, Peter Pettigrew, seemed to be constantly around them.

Snape wouldn’t have had anything to do with James if it wasn’t for Lily. As far as Snape could tell, he’d been in love with Lily Evans since the moment he had met her. When they’d gotten Sorted into different Houses, however, it had seemed like he had missed his chance. He had had dreams where she’d been Sorted into Slytherin with him instead, where they had been united forever.

They had somehow managed to stay friends through the first five years of school, helped mainly by the fact that they had Potions together. Snape had quickly proven himself useful by offering to do most, if not all, of Lily’s homework. Their professor, Horace Slughorn, had ignored the obviousness of this fact and proceeded to declare Lily a rare genius at Potions. If it had been anyone else – that idiot Crabbe, for instance, who sat behind Snape in class and kept using charms to permanently kick his seat – he would have been furiously jealous, but with Lily he reveled in her acknowledgement. It was as if he had trained a pupil and that person had succeeded.

Then they had fought, due to James’ inability to stop picking on him and Snape’s likelihood to respond by hexing him into oblivion. 

“I can’t take it anymore!” Lily had said to them once, infuriated, and clueless James had responded with another plea for her to go out with him.

Her eyes had lit up as she’d come up with an idea. It was an idea that had terrified Snape.

***

“We’re going to Hogsmeade,” Lily said now, not giving much room for discussion. 

“Hogsmeade? No,” Snape murmured in response. He didn’t want to go there – there were far too many people, people everywhere. People who would be looking at him and laughing, pointing at his greasy hair and wondering what in the Hell he could be doing with the school’s two favorite Gryffindors.

“We’re going to Hogsmeade,” Lily repeated. James gave Snape a look that seemed to say “well, what can you do?” and followed along after her, trying in vain to wrap an arm around her; Lily kept in the lead with little difficulty. 

“Why? James chimed in, “Is it all right to ask why?”

Lily laughed. Her laugh was so beautiful. 

“I want to go into Honeydukes,” she told them. “And I think I want to stop by Zonko’s, too.”

“What, are you going to put some kind of… exploding toad in my backpack or something?” James asked. Snape noted that there was a strange sense of hopefulness in the question. Maybe James wanted Lily to be like her – well, the part of him that was a prankster, not the part of him that was a bullying jerk. What did Lily see in him anyway? Despite their odd arrangement, Snape couldn’t help but wonder. Not like he could figure out what she saw in himself, either, of course.

“Um… No,” Lily replied with a grin. “I was thinking we could get some fun stuff. Maybe get some of those funny quills that write the wrong things. We could slip one to Remus when he’s trying to do his homework.”

“I didn’t realize you had a sense of humor!” James replied with a laugh.

Lily rolled her eyes.

“I have a sense of humor when it’s harmless,” she told him, looking nervously over at Snape, who had more than once been the target of decidedly non-harmless pranks at the hands of James and Sirius. 

Snape opened his mouth, trying to think of something to say, but ended up saying nothing at all. 

“All right,” he agreed, “Let’s go to Hogsmeade.” He looked at Lily – he would follow her anywhere he had to. Even into James Potter’s arms.


End file.
